


make a vassal of him

by Dhillarearen



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Dom/sub, Established Relationship, Light Bondage, Multi, Polyamory, Threesome - F/M/M, shakadolin's gentle introduction to, spoilers for WOK and WOR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 02:27:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11049393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dhillarearen/pseuds/Dhillarearen
Summary: “How do I do this?” Shallan asked.Kaladin thought he knew now where this was going, and Adolin was right-- he did like the idea.





	make a vassal of him

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic three years ago, don’t give up on your dreams, kids.

 

_  …some kinds of baseness _

_ Are nobly undergone and most poor matters _

_ Point to rich ends. _

 

— _The Tempest,_ Act III Scene 1.

 

* * *

 

“You’ll like this,” Adolin said, and kissed Kaladin. Kissed him sweet, soft and pliant, not demanding anything at all. For the first time that day—and it had been a _day_ — Kaladin felt some of the tension in the base of his spine unwind.

“ _There_ you go.” Adolin smiled into the kiss and drew away, eyes meeting Kaladin’s fondly before he went back to where Shallan waited, her knees sinking deep into the mattress.She was sleepy-eyed and open-mouthed from the kisses Adolin had been sharing with _her,_ the kind she liked best, slow and deep and (she blushed when they teased her about it) messy. It made Kaladin want to smile at her, so he did. She blinked at him, dreamy, and took the hand Adolin offered to pull him back in.

He bent close, his hair taking the shadows from hers, and whispered something into her ear.Shallan was nodding before he even finished, but then covered her face with her hands until Adolin could coax them apart—“Shh, love, shh, you don’t have to.” 

“I want to,” Shallan said, raising a glowing face—embarrassment, not stormlight. She looked sure in her decision, however, and her repeated murmurs of assent worked to ease the worry from Adolin’s brow.

(Shallan was brave and clever and stronger than Kaladin could ever hope to become, and he knew, in a hard, blazing knot in his chest, that he would die to keep her safe.It was the knowledge that Adolin would do the same that made this all work.

Not that either he or Shallan would let him.He was too important.Besides, protection was _their_ job.)

Adolin kissed Shallan once, twice, and then deeply, the wetness of his tongue against hers clearly visible in the light from the spheres.  Shallan’s breath hitched and her fingers closed against the front of Adolin’s chest, as if grasping a shirt, but of course there wasn’t one there. Adolin twisted them slightly more towards Kaladin before cupping his hands higher on Shallan’s shoulders and pressing in for more-- he knew Kaladin liked to watch this, how they moved and sighed and how Shallan liked to suck at Adolin’s bottom lip because it made him clutch her tighter.

Kaladin settled his back against the wall, cross-legged, his hands resting lightly on his knees.He had Teft and Drehy outside the door, his spear against the bedpost, and the patrols would pass below the window every quarter-hour.He could be comfortable, this night, and enjoy this.

Shallan did something that made Adolin hiss.Adolin pulled back, narrowing his eyes at the grin she gave him, and slid his hand up her calf to curl in the hem of her nightdress.

It was the type made for women far along in their betrothals, Shallan had told Kaladin. _Lighteyed_  women, Kaladin had corrected: who else had the wealth for special new clothes for sleeping just because they were about to be married? The dress had the longer sleeve and buttons for her safehand that her outer garments shared.Perhaps the designers had anticipated this very situation, Shallan had suggested, and then hid her face behind that sleeve.

(If they had anticipated it, why not button the entire nightdress closed, Adolin had wanted to know. Shallan had gotten that look on her face that meant she was thinking about books to research the question in, which was one of the wonderful things about her that Kaladin supported, but at the time he had been naked and rather more interested in the practical applications of the designers’ oversight.)

Certain lines of propriety were easier to cross than others. There were things that could be done that would not, in technicality, lessen Shallan’s suitability for marriage (though it was Adolin she was marrying, and why it mattered anyway Kaladin didn’t know—lighteyes and their strange, prudish customs). The possibility of ruining Shallan’s reputation had made Adolin hem and haw for an age before Shallan informed him that she was quite capable of ruining her own reputation, thank you very much, and Adolin didn’t have to take part in such activities anyway if he was so worried: she could manage very well with only Kaladin’s help, if Kaladin were so willing.

(It worried Adolin, still, though not, Kaladin pointed out, enough for Adolin to continue to refuse her. Sometimes, after Shallan had gone back to her chambers and he and Adolin curled around each other in the dark, Adolin would put his lips to Kaladin’s hair and tell it of the desperate, cold-settling fear of what will happen to her if he should die. What will happen to Kaladin, as well, both of them, and then Adolin would stop before he could talk of darker consequences.

_You will not die,_ Kaladin wouldn’t tell him. He could not make such a promise. He had learned better.)

Now was not the time for heavy thoughts. Now was the time for far more pleasant things. 

Shallan’s nightdress made a pool of wrinkles about her hips, falling to the bed in dips of pale-dyed silk.“Come here,” she said, and pulled Adolin’s face up to kiss him again.He palmed her breast through her nightdress, rubbing his thumb in a circle, and Kaladin could see the protrusions of her nipples through the fabric.The kiss became faster, harder, Shallan gripping tight to the back of Adolin’s neck and Adolin rising up off his heels, taking her with him.She laid a hand over his when he started to move it, did half the work of drawing it over her backside. Kaladin found himself leaning forward.

“All right?” said Adolin, a little out of breath.Shallan nodded, said “Yes!” at his continued waiting, and Adolin leaned backwards to let her settle herself against the pillows.He was becoming hard, Kaladin could see through the thin fabric of his sleep pants.

Kaladin bit his tongue and breathed deep. The spheres dimmed a bit, streams of stormlight bending towards him. These days it was harder _not_ to do that than otherwise, especially when he was…excited. Shallan noticed, but Adolin did not, distracted by the contrast Shallan made with the sheets.

Kaladin understood the feeling.

Looking between them, lips pursed, Shallan propped her hands on her hips. “Well?”

“Just admiring,” Adolin said, and flopped onto his front to fling an arm over the side of the bed.  Kaladin appreciated the way the muscles in his back moved as he rummaged around underneath.  Shallan smiled, a little shy, a little wicked, and let her hands creep out towards him. Adolin flipped back over and she retracted them, adopting an innocent expression that might actually fool someone who didn’t know her as well as the two of them.

Adolin squinted at Kaladin.  Kaladin held his hands up, palm out, and offered up a bland stare that had Shallan giggling.  Adolin rolled his eyes and huffed, long-suffering.

“Here,” he said, and held out his hand to Shallan. Something was hanging from it. A rope, thin and silky, with the ends knotted to keep from fraying. Shallan hesitated.Adolin opened his mouth, concern creasing the corners of his eyes, but Shallan shook her head quickly and took it, smoothing it between her fingers.

“How do I do this?” she asked. Kaladin thought he knew now where this was going, and Adolin was right— he _did_ like the idea.

(Had maybe had the idea, once or twice, in his own bed with one hand clapped over his mouth and the other creeping beneath his waistband—)

Adolin began to explain, but Kaladin could see Shallan starting to worry, starting to outguess herself, so he moved forward (with difficulty—why was this bed so storming _soft)_ and put his hands over hers to show her how to tie the kind of knot that wouldn’t hurt a man tied up, but would keep him from escaping. Adolin shot him a grateful glance.

Kaladin moved back to his spot against the wall as Shallan pulled Adolin forward and began binding his hands in front of him, a crease in her brow from concentration.  She brushed her thumbs over his wrists when she was finished, right over his pulse, and Adolin’s eyelids fluttered.

_Interesting._

The tension between the two of them had changed. The air was weighted now, warm, and there was a hunger in Shallan’s eyes.

She tipped forward—slowly, testing—and kissed Adolin.After a moment her hands came up to frame his face.Adolin left his arms limp between then, but shifted a little on his knees when Shallan started kissing down his throat. His fingers twitched.

Shallan spent a good time buried in the bend of Adolin’s neck, kissing and biting, her palms gliding more and more confidently over his chest.When they dipped for the third time down near the waist of Adolin’s pants and he jerked, she stopped and pulled back.

“Too much?” said Adolin, but Shallan shook her head.

“I was wondering—I had a thought.” She was blushing again, tilting her chin down as if trying to hide it in her chest.“If you…on your back?”

“I can do that,” said Adolin, grin back in place, and started to lean backwards.He tried to flip his legs out from under him and caught Shallan in the thigh with his heel, setting off a round of worried turbulence. Kaladin raised his eyebrows at Adolin for trying to show off. Adolin responded with a rude gesture, hampered somewhat by the rope.

The princeling was definitely hard now.The looseness of his pants was caught under him, and the way they were pulled taut hardly looked comfortable.He grimaced and tried to adjust them with his bound hands before Shallan shook her head and leaned over to pull them off him.The look of surprise on Adolin’s face made Kaladin snort, especially since Adolin also stopped moving and Shallan had to hit him in the knee to get him to lift his hips enough for her to help him wriggle free.

“Pay attention to her,” Kaladin said softly.It was the first time he had spoken since the three of them had entered the room.

The other two startled. Shallan’s expression shifted, going conspiratorial, and she and Kaladin turned on an unspoken cue to look at Adolin.

His lips were parted, slack with something like awe, and as they watched his tongue darted out to wet them.“Storms,” he said hoarsely.

“Shut up,” said Kaladin.

Adolin snapped his mouth closed. Kaladin could hear his teeth click together.

Yes, Kaladin liked this _very_ much.

Slowly, Kaladin shifted forward and settled a finger’s breadth from Adolin’s head.Adolin’s throat bobbed as he swallowed.

“Think the two of us will be too much for him like this?” Kaladin asked Shallan, his voice dispassionate.Stormfather, he didn’t know what he was doing.If Adolin wanted to be ordered around, well, Kaladin had led three-man revolts and full battalions, but he had no experience wielding power of _this_ sort.

(But he’d thought about it, oh, he had.)

Shallan cocked her head, considering.“I think he can handle it,” she said at last.She laid a hand on Adolin’s belly, just above his cock, and laughed when Adolin trembled. “Barely.”

“Good,” said Kaladin, and slid a hand into Adolin’s hair to yank his head back. Adolin went willingly, a gasp escaping his mouth, and Kaladin fixed him with a stare.

“Kal told you to be quiet,” Shallan said before Kaladin could remind him. Her tone was still bright, but there was an edge to it, now. Where had her stutter gone? “I don’t think he wants to be disobeyed.”

Adolin’s eyes were wide, almost panicked, but the flush on his cheeks made it clear he wasn’t upset. He pressed his lips together and lifted his chin.

“Wait,” said Kaladin, dropping the commanding officer from his voice.“Adolin. You need to be able to tell us if we go too far. You have to be able to speak for that, storms, I wasn’t thinking.”

“I know you like shutting me up,” Adolin said, relaxing from his tense posture and quirking his mouth at Kaladin.  He rolled his shoulders back, trying for a more comfortable position.  “How’s this, I promise to disobey orders and shout very loudly if I want to stop. So like usual.” He grinned.

“Hush,” said Shallan, flicking her fingers at him. Then she blushed.  “I mean, of course not hush if you don’t want to. Need to. That was the point of this little, um, interlude?”

“It’s not like you’ve put a real gag in,” Adolin said cheerfully, wiggling into the mattress.

Kaladin paused.“Could I? Not tonight. But sometime.”

“Oh,” said Adolin.He cleared his throat. “Well. Yes. If—I was being nice and easing you two into this kind of thing. There are other methods to, ah, tap out, as it were, if you can’t speak.”

“Than it’s a plan!” Shallan said, clapping her hands.“Yay for communication!”

“In bed,” added Adolin, and pouted as he was ignored.

"So, I take it this means we can proceed?" Shallan asked. She fiddled with one of her curls-- a nervous habit-- before catching herself and folding her hands in her lap. "Because I was. Um. Enjoying being in charge.”

“So was I,” Adolin said, with feeling.  “Kal?”

“Ready when you are, princeling, Princess Horneater.”

“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“No.”

“That’s quite rude, you know. You’re supposed to say ‘forget what, my dear?’ and smile adoringly.” She stretched herself over Adolin’s legs to kiss Kaladin, quick and noisy.  When Kaladin reached out to tug her back, she let him, and softened against his mouth with a sigh of contentment.

It had been too long since the three of them had had time to indulge in each other like this.Excitement kindled low in Kaladin’s abdomen, and something in his shoulders unknotted, letting them drop half an inch as he wrapped his arms around Shallan’s waist. He could tell Shallan approved from the pleased little noise she made, and she traced her tongue along the inside of Kaladin’s lip before she pulled back.

“Don’t you two stop on _my_ account.”

Adolin had managed to prop himself up by passing his hands to one side and leaning on his elbow.He had the tip of his tongue caught between his teeth, watching them, and the curtains drawn around the head of the bed gave a rosy cast to his skin where the light passed through. 

Kaladin wanted to _wreck_ him.

No. There was something new in play tonight—the rope—and they hadn’t talked about doing that while Adolin was tied up. But the surge of viciousness was heady, heady like a knife held to Kaladin’s throat but good instead of frightening. Kaladin breathed in stormlight and breathed it out in a long, slow drag; Shallan inhaled and drew his stormlight into her nose and mouth, holding his eyes with her own, her mouth curling upward again, dangerous, _dangerous._

Kaladin always had worked better when he had a team.

“I am absolutely fine with you continuing, if it wasn’t clear. Perfectly fine. Go right ahead.”

“Weren’t you shutting up?” Kaladin said, not taking his eyes from Shallan’s. Adolin let out a strangled noise and, from the way it cut off abruptly, closed his mouth again. Kaladin reached out a hand blindly to press against Adolin’s cheek and felt him shiver. 

Not a knife held to Kaladin’s throat. This was Kaladin holding the tip of his spear to _Adolin’s_ throat, pressing it against the fragile, fluttering pulse just to see it jump. 

Slow. _Slow._ Not tonight.

_Not yet._

Kaladin trailed the back of his knuckles against the side of Adolin’s neck and felt Adolin’s pulse, racing likescoutsbefore a highstorm.

“You’re really quite into this,” Shallan said, breaking Kaladin’s gaze to smirk at Adolin. Adolin shrugged, a little sheepishly, and ducked his head. He peered up at them through his lashes—those blasted long lashes—as if to say, _I can’t help it,_ _can you blame me?_

“Don’t worry,” Shallan chirped, patting the cheek Kaladin had left free. “I’ll leave that part out of my notes. The ones I show to other people, at least.”

A look of mingled terror and arousal crossed Adolin’s face. He opened his mouth to protest, remembered he wasn’t supposed to speak, and gaped wordlessly at Shallan for a few moments. Not sure how much Shallan was joking—she did take a _lot_ of notes—Kaladin hooked his fingers quickly underneath the rope binding Adolin’s hands and used it to pull Adolin’s arms above his head. The position made Adolin arch his back, throwing the planes of his torso into new relief, and Kaladin felt his own teeth sink into his bottom lip as he smiled.

“Hmm. Do you just want to pose him? He does do a wonderful job looking pretty. Of course, given that that’s mostly all he does, it makes sense that he’d become proficient.” Shallan winked at Kaladin as Adolin scowled, unable to argue. “No, don’t frown, dear, we’ll be nice. Or rather, I’ll be. Kaladin looks like he wants to eat you alive.” 

She had resumed her petting of Adolin’s chest, but there was purpose to it this time, her touches coming promising-close to where Adolin wanted them before dancing away. Adolin arched further, hips trying to chase her hands, and she laughed at his impatience.

Not a bad strategy, to make him really feel his bonds: Adolin was, Kaladin had to admit, a reciprocative lover . He watched Shallan rile Adolin up for a time,entertained, before thought of something better. Glancing at Shallan, to give her warning, he rapped the side of Adolin’s head to get his attention.

“Don’t move,” Kaladin ordered, and bent to swallow Adolin down.

The sound that Adolin bit back might have been a scream. His cock twitched, heavy in Kaladin’s mouth, and Kaladin eased almost all the way off before taking him deep again. Adolin was doing a truly terrible job of keeping quiet, scattering the air with muffled whines and broken noises that stopped half-way up his throat, but he seemed to be keeping his mouth closed, at least, and Kaladin supposed he ought to give him credit for trying.

Adolin had better control over his body than he did his voice. Despite the bitterness that slipped against Kaladin’s tongue, Adolin’s hips barely twitched, the muscles in his thighs clenching with the effort of keeping still. Even when Shallan circled her fingers briefly around the base of Adolin’s cock, pumping shallowly as Kaladin pulled back to breathe wetly over the head.

Storms, Kaladin could get used to this, having Adolin tied up and at his—at _their—_ mercy.Above him Shallan murmured a steady stream of words into Adolin’s ear, probably more teasing, picking apart Adolin’s reactions and desires with her artist’s eye for truth. Curious—Shallan had said she was having fun, but Kaladin wasn’t sure if she was having _fun_ —Kaladin slipped his right hand under the bunched-up hem of Shallan’s nightdress and felt between her legs.

“ _Mmm,”_ Shallan said, breaking off her whispering. Kaladin stroked her once more and then withdrew his hand— he had to concentrate on what he was doing, to keep from choking—and wiped his wet fingers against Adolin’s side.Normally Adolin would complain, but he seemed to have his mind on other things.

“Sweet, don’t hurt yourself,” Kaladin heard Shallan say, and Kaladin took the excuse of seeing what was happening to replace his mouth with his hand for a much-needed break. It really _had_ been too long, if his jaw was aching this soon. He was in time to see Shallan pull Adolin’s lip away from his teeth, inspecting it, before kissing him gently. “He was ready to draw blood,” Shallan explained.“He’s really trying _very_ hard to be good. And you’re doing so well for us, Adolin. You’re marvelous.”

The praise made Adolin’s hands curl against the headboard, fingernails digging into the soft wood.Kaladin growled a little before he could stop himself, and with an apologetic look at Shallan, gave in and curled his fingers around himself under his loose trousers. 

This much he could manage while sucking cock. It was familiar, automatic, not requiring anything but Kaladin letting his body seek its pleasure by thrusting into his own tight fist. When the first groan rose up he stifled it by closing his lips around Adolin again. 

There was nothing particularly special about Adolin’s cock, aside from the fact that it was _Adolin’s,_ and with it Kaladin could turn Adolin into a panting, sex-dazed mess. It was always gratifying when Adolin begged… but no, Kaladin hadn’t yet had his fill of listening to Adolin’s desperate, increasingly futile attempts to keep quiet. In a way it was almost cute, if ‘cute’ could mean the way it fed the dark curl of _want_ that thrilled through Kaladin’s blood.

Under his forearm Adolin’s thighs tensed further, a warning, and Kaladin hummed as Adolin shook and spilled hot down Kaladin’s throat.He pulled off slowly, relishing Adolin’s oversensitive whine, and wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist.

Adolin looked like a man drunk, his lips bitten red and raw and beautiful.He melted into the pillows, staring up at the canopy with glazed eyes for a full minute before lifting his head to look at the two of them.

“You can speak,” Kaladin said offhandedly—or, as much as he could with his fingers still wrapped around his cock.  Seeing Adolin—or Shallan—come undone _did_ things to him, and he sat back on his heels so he had the room to stroke himself faster.

Shallan reached out, Adolin struggling to sit, but Kaladin shook his head. His desire still had the bite of irritation in it, a remnant from the day he’d had, the _week—_ he’d probably snap at one of them if they touched him now.

Instead, Shallan slid her hand between her own legs, rubbing in small, quick circles. She grimaced. “I wish one of you could be in me. I ache.”

Taln’s _helm._ Kaladin gasped and came over his own fist, bending in half so his forehead pressed into Adolin’s thigh. He mouthed absentmindedly at the skin there as he rode out the aftershocks, surprised by their intensity.When he was composed enough to look up he saw that Shallan had gone as red as her hair.

“One of these days I’m going to think before I speak,” she said wryly.

“Please don’t,” said Adolin, rasping amazement, and Kaladin nodded agreement.

They all stared at each other.

It was Adolin who broke the silence, already working to make up the difference his brief forfeit of speech had made. “Kaladin,” he said, as if commenting on the evening’s choice of wine, “Would you do me the favor of untying my restraints? I need our dear Lady Lightweaver to sit on my face at her earliest convenience.”

“Not if I get to her first,” Kaladin said, reaching.

 

* * *

 

Afterward they made a nest of the pillows—there were really too many of the overstuffed things on the bed, especially for a _warcamp_ — and sprawled over each other within it, heavy-limbed with happy exhaustion.  Kaladin butted his head up under Shallan’s chin and let himself sink back into the warmth of Adolin behind him, the princeling’s arm thrown over him and Shallan both. All of them were naked now, clothes having been downgraded to rags for clean-up ( _expensive_ rags, especially in Shallan’s case), and sated skin made a welcome barrier against the chill that stole through the room at night.

“That went well, I think,” Shallan said, stifling a yawn. “I wonder if we could actually tie your hands _to_ the headboard next time, Adolin…”

Kaladin felt Adolin’s chest rumble as he chuckled. “Storms, woman. Always thinking ahead.” With a grunt he hauled her closer, squeezing Kaladin tight between the two of them and nosing lazily at the spot behind his ear. “Sounds like something that could be arranged.”

“And gag you,” Kaladin reminded him. His tongue felt clumsy, his thoughts pleasantly lethargic. “Don’t forget that.”

Adolin laughed again. “As if I could. You two will be the ruin of me, all Heralds and the Almighty.”

“You like it,” Shallan mumbled, sounding very close to sleep.“You like us…when we…” she trailed off into unintelligible murmurs, her voice evening out into steady breathing.Nothing tired Shallan out like sex did.Sometimes Kaladin and Adolin used this knowledge to trick her into rest when she’d been up for days at a time over her books and papers and maps.

(Kaladin responded better to a more direct approach: Adolin or Shallan simply threatened to knock him out.)

Kaladin laid his arm over Adolin’s around her waist and forced himself to close his eyes. The prickings of unease stirred again at the corners of his brain, threatening his good mood, filling his mind with assassins and earthquakes and the eyes of good men going up in smoke.

Teft and Drehy outside the door. His spear in easy reach. Stormlight in all the spheres. 

Kaladin slept.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Relevant headcanons: Shallan’s’ insecurities come back in force during sex, until she forgets to think about them; Adolin has had a lot of sex, but most of it with people he didn’t truly care about; Kaladin really likes touching, but doesn’t always want to be touched.
> 
> I realized writing this that shotgunning stormlight would make a bomb-ass Kaladin/Shallan fic


End file.
